Vegan Lunch and Woodland Walk

It was a lovely sunny day in Lancashire today and I had a niiiiice lie-in which was just perfection! When I did decide to get up and brave the day today I went for lunch and a catch up with one of my best friends from uni, he's called Will, he's great and is also one of the wittiest people I know (love you, Will!) One thing I don't think I appreciate enough about my uni campus is how darn funky it is! Turns out there's a vegan cafe randomly on the rooftop of one of the ICT buildings which Will took me to which was pretty cool and there were some pretty views over the fields around uni! Unfortunately I'm not vegan, in fact I'm a raving carnivore (much to my shame being such an animal lover), fortunately though there was a quorn sausage toastie on offer on the menu which I was all for, since I sort of prefer quorn sausages to regular ones, weird I know. 

I'm also just going to have to apologise for the absence of our eyes in these photos, it was very bright!

After lunch we went for a dander through the woodland trail which runs around campus and it was just a really lovely afternoon! Will is heading off soon, first to Cambodia for a month and then off for a year abroad in Maine, USA and since he's English and I live in Ireland I probably won't be seeing him again for a good while after this year at uni is over which is very sad indeed, so I'm really happy to have got the chance to have such a nice lunch today before we part ways.

Hopefully I'll be a little bit more active on my blog now that exams are coming to a close. I really haven't been out much recently to have anything to blog about, but I'm really hoping that will change, otherwise I would be really sad!!

Hope y'all are good and are getting lovely weather! This is based on the assumption that if the sun can shine in the North West of England, it can shine anywhere!

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Weird Things My Hamster Does | Introducing Buddha

So I was going to use this post to introduce my new little mate, Buddha the Syrian hamster but since the cheeky little imp wouldn't stay still long enough to photograph him properly, the post has sort of morphed into some little snaps of some of the weird things Buddha likes to do on a daily basis. I'm not sure if some of this behaviour is particularly normal, I personally think he's the weirdest hamster out there, but it amuses me all the same and I love him to bits.

Some funny little habits include:

1. Falling asleep anywhere and everywhere at any time. He's fallen asleep hanging from the side of his cage before, he's fallen asleep in his ball and a lot of the time he either snuggles up in his wheel and falls asleep or will be running full speed and will just drop and be sleeping.

2. When he wakes up he always does a massive yawn. I've had a few hamsters and have never really seen any of them do this. Me and my flatmate can't decide whether it's cute or a bit gross (think big teeth and strange curly tongue) but I think it's probably a bit of both.

3. He likes to "monkey-bar" from the top of his cage and swing around a little bit when he's bored.

5. He always does this thing where he'll wiggle down the back of my bed and always gets himself stuck and starts squeaking and I have to rescue him and despite this always happening he still keeps doing it.. hmm..

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Saturday @ the Lakes

"I wandered lonely as a cloud..."

I'm currently sitting on my bed in my uni room, mug of tea in hand and listening to some cheerful morning tunes. Despite the rather dismal weather outside my window this morning I'm perfectly content as my mind drifts back to the sunny Saturday I spent in the Lake District in Cumbria with my friend Chris a couple of weekends ago.

We got up early in the morning that day and caught the bus to Grasmere where we had a little wander around the village and stopped for a spot of brunch in one of the little cafes on the main street overlooking the River Rothay and St Oswald's church where there was a wedding on. Not going to lie I was having a good creep at all the bridesmaids and wedding guests and what they were wearing- I just love weddings! However, we had to leave before the bride arrived though, much to my disappointment! The weather was just perfect, sunny with a just lovely cool breeze. From Grasmere we began walking back towards Rydal through the woods where we stopped to rest and skim stones on the river which ran through it. Once we got to Rydal we took a walk up to the gardens surrounding a manor house called Rydal Hall and then up towards Rydal Mount, the family home of the English poet, William Wordsworth who's also actually buried in Grasmere.

We then kept walking, stopping every now and then to admire the beautiful views and ended up in Ambleside (It's quite far so that actually took us a while) where we went for a quick coffee before catching the bus home.

As always, I'm really supposed to be revising right now... But I still like to keep a good balance of work and leisure time which is why I don't feel too guilty spending an hour or two editing and writing up this blog post, though I do definitely need to get my head down now!

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Birthday Shenanigans

I turned 19 yesterday!! Yes, I am now in the final year of my teens with absolutely no idea where the last few years have gone! Life is really strange sometimes.

 I'm back home from university now, snuggled up in bed, recovering from an absolutely amazing birthday "weekend"  (actually from Sunday to Tuesday) courtesy of some of my very best friends from home.

 First of all, on the Sunday afternoon, myself and two of my friends left for a trip up the Antrim Coast  where we stayed in a little town called Castlerock which has a really beautiful beach that has been used as a filming location for Game of Thrones in the past. That evening we just chilled out, watched some movies and then went for a late-night walk on the beach (one of my favourite things!), then the next day got up early to go bodyboarding which was really really fun even though the water was freeeeezing! I think the warm shower that was waiting for me when we got back was probably the best shower of my life so far, no exaggeration. It was lush. 

After a spot of lunch we headed up to Downhil Demense and Mussenden Temple; property owned by the National Trust which sits high up on a cliff overlooking the sea. The views from here are absolutely spectacular. I'd say it's definitely one of my favourite scenic areas in Northern Ireland, it's truly stunning. We stayed there until the sun started to go down then headed back to the house for a late dinner before heading back home.

THEN, yesterday morning a group of us set off once again to Belfast Castle and after a little wander around the gardens we started out on a fairly strenuous hike up Cave Hill-  for which I definitely wasn't wearing sensible footwear- but it was well worth it in the end for the amazing view over the whole of Belfast from the top! I'd never been before so I was really glad I got to go yesterday. It's funny how little you see of the things on your doorstep sometimes.

Finally, last night I went for a meal in the city with a few of my friends from school who I hadn't seen in a few months since I'd been away. It was really lovely to see them and get to catch up before I head back to uni again. A perfect end to a perfect day!

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